Perhaps the most significant development on the Internet in recent years has been the rapid proliferation of online social networks, such as Facebook™ and LinkedIn™. Billions of users are presently accessing such social networks to connect with friends and acquaintances and to share personal and professional information. In order to be successful, such online social networks need to carefully monitor their performance to spot fast-moving trends and to determine the effectiveness of various modifications to their social-networking sites, such as the addition of new features.
These social-networking sites typically measure their performance using metrics, such as “number of page views,” “number of unique users” or “revenue per user.” However, it can be challenging to determine how various factors influence these metrics. For example, if adding a new feature to a social-networking site increases the number of member-to-guest invitations, how does this affect the number of page views a month from now? Sophisticated analysis tools are needed to answer such questions.